Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake

A fun name from when I enjoyed watching professional wrestling.  So, I'll always think of it as WWF...not sure what went wrong once it became the WWE?  Other than perhaps I had grown up by then?

Why is this relevant?  We'll get to that in a minute.

First off, is this weeks workout.  It's going to be hot.  Stinky hot.  So hot that you might see robins having to use oven mitts when they pull worms out of the ground!  So hot, that you are almost guaranteed to see squirrels fanning their nuts!!

The weather channel is calling for a high of 99.  Weather bug has a much more reasonable high of 92.  There is also a chance of storms.  We will be smart with our decision about choice of running plan tonight and if its still in the 90s we almost definitely will do our contingency course which involves doing loops of Angela's TRYangle, plus extension.  That will give us a chance to run by Mr. Mister every time and keep as cool as possible in the conditions.  It also will provide easy access to the drinking fountain.  We'll pick the official plan tonight during the pre-game chat.

I am expecting as many as 4 new people tonight.  If they are brave and come out I hope you all help to make them welcome and lend a hand if they continue coming out to help them with any running related questions they may have.  TRY started as an idea to help people better appreciate and enjoy running, so I'm always anxious when new people join in.  Excited to have them.  But nervous about whether or not they'll feel welcome and whether or not they'll enjoy it enough to give it another...try.  :-)

Back to the title - why Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake?

Well, because the Team Beef luncheon involved a Beef Cake.


But, unfortunately (or fortunately?) it was not actually made of beef.  It was a regular white and chocolate cake.  And it was delicious.

I wanted to spend a paragraph talking about the Team Beef lunch.  It was great.  There was ample appetizers: veggies, tomato pie, and some deep fried somethings or other (that were good).  Then the main course had mac salad, utica greens, bbq beans, salad, fruit salad, hamburgers, some sort of steak, and a carving station.  Everything I had was very good.  There was waaaay too much food and I hope they found a way to not have it go to waste.  Seeing as how it was free, I can't recommend enough to consider going to that next year.  Adam, Escalade, and Jake can chime in here, but I was very impressed by how good it was and how generous most things were.  (They ran out of tomato pie...that was the only thing I can think of that they needed more of.)  They had the beef council, some beef producers, young beef ambassadors, and of course a couple dozen team Beef members.  They seemed genuinely appreciative for the people who ran for them.  Overall it earned my T-bone seal of approval.

(A final note on the jerseys.  The one woman I know the best said even her husband decided he couldn't wear the jersey.  He tried it on that morning and said "no way".  Same as a couple of us did.  Last year they had more of a t-shirt for the men and they ran too big.  This year the sleeveless style ran way too small.  They are hoping for something more accurate for next year.